


More Worthy Than Believed

by LadyShadowphyre



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M, Mjolnir likes Tony, Steve can be an idiot, Tony is a BAMF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-24
Updated: 2012-12-24
Packaged: 2017-11-22 06:13:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/606692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyShadowphyre/pseuds/LadyShadowphyre
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nobody expects Tony Stark, genius billionaire playboy philanthropist, to be worthy of wielding Mjolnir, least of all Tony Stark himself. Mjolnir has its own ideas of who's worthy or not.</p>
<p>Now in <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/811931">Podfic Format</a>!</p>
            </blockquote>





	More Worthy Than Believed

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt on Avengerkink asking for Tony to wield Mjolnir. I've had a couple of these scenes kicking around in my head, but I couldn't fit them into anything else I'm working on yet, so here they are as a separate fic. I know I'm supposed to be on break, but I couldn't resist. -_-
> 
> This... ended up a little angsty. ^^ ~~Also I might be harboring a little anger at a previous fic I read where Steve pulled Thor's trick with Loki and Mjolnir on Tony.~~

**T** HE FIRST TIME HE EVER TOUCHED MJOLNIR, Tony was only barely aware of doing so. It was the middle of the night, he had been up for seventy-two hours straight and counting with the whole Loki fiasco, and was distracted by his tablet as he made his way by memory to the kitchen to get more coffee. He was not expecting the way to be blocked by something metal-hard the size of a cat lying in the middle of the floor, and so tripped over it.

"Oh, for fuck's sake," he grumbled, glaring down at it. A quick glance at the time signature on his tablet indicated it was ridiculously late by normal human standards, and Thor was supposed to be enjoying his reunion with his "beloved lady Jane", who probably wouldn't appreciate being woken up by Tony yelling at her boyfriend to keep his hammer out of the middle of the common areas' floorspace.

_Damn it, I can't just leave it in the middle of the floor for someone else to trip on!_ he thought, scowling. With that thought, he bent down and grabbed the handle. It was heavy, sure, as he'd suspected from a metal war hammer, but not too heavy to manage. Quickly he moved over to one wall and set it down gently beside it where no one could accidentally trip on it, then continued on into the kitchen for coffee. _I'll remind Thor about it tomorrow._

Tomorrow, however, found Tony wandering into the common area to hear Clint telling Thor about how he'd come in that morning to find Mjolnir against the wall and had tried to lift it but couldn't make it budge.

"Aye, 'tis part of the enchantment laid upon it," Thor explained, stroking the handle in a way that made Tony desperately wish he'd taken a cold shower earlier. "My father has decreed that only one who is worthy of the power of Thor may wield Mjolnir."

"Damn," Clint whistled, looking impressed and a little disgruntled. "That's some anti-theft insurance."

Tony turned around and headed for his bedroom. Clearly he was overdue for sleep if he'd managed to hallucinate lifting a hammer nobody but Thor could lift.

 

**I** T TURNED OUT THAT NOT BEING ABLE TO LIFT MJOLNIR WAS BIG NEWS, at least to the other Avengers. Tony woke to JARVIS informing him that Clint had called for an assemblage to see if anyone else on the team was "worthy" enough to lift it. He was sorely tempted to just go back to sleep, but his traitorous brain had kicked into gear with the thought of observation and data collection and testable hypotheses...

He was still grumbling under his breath when he joined the others in the living room, wearing a hastily donned pair of plaid pajama pants and a faded grey MIT t-shirt. His entrance earned him a few raised eyebrows from the others and a disapproving look from Rogers that made Tony want to grind his teeth. No question what they thought he'd been doing.

"So!" he said, sitting down on the steps and putting his elbows on his knees in an unconsciously passive-defensive posture. "Thor's the baseline, obviously. Who's tried to lift it so far?"

"I tried earlier," Clint offered. "We hadn't decided who should go next, though."

"Order of arrival?" Bruce suggested. That would put Tony last, he realized, which he was actually fine with. Everyone else shrugged, so Natasha stepped up and reached for the hammer.

It moved, barely a centimeter and with obvious effort on her part, but it did move just a little. Tony took careful mental notes while Clint whooped and Natasha stared at her own hand in disbelief.

"A valiant effort, shieldsister!" Thor exclaimed, smiling widely. Natasha managed a slight smile for him, but quickly retreated to her seat next to Clint, looking very controlled and, to Tony's eyes, a little disquieted.

"Guess that means it's my turn," Bruce said, grimacing slightly. He eyed the hammer cautiously, then stepped closer and touched the handle. Immediately, he jerked his hand away, shaking it and looking surprised.

"What happened?" Tony asked, leaning forward, partly curious about the reaction but mostly just concerned for Bruce.

"It shocked me," Bruce said, a little baffled. Glancing up at Thor, he added, "I guess Mjolnir doesn't much like the Other Guy."

"It's a hammer," Steve protested, looking uncertain. "Can it like or dislike someone?"

"Verily," Thor confirmed, nodding. "For the All-Father's enchantment requires Mjolnir to be capable of discerning worth and intent."

"So it probably matters what you intend to _do_ once you've lifted it?" Tony asked, tilting his head to one side, then glanced slyly at Clint. "Just what were you thinking of doing when you tried to lift it earlier, Barton?"

Clint flushed. "I... mayhavebeenthinkingofhidingitinthefreezer," he admitted, trying not to look at Thor. Natasha smacked him on the shoulder, but Thor laughed amusedly.

"Indeed, Mjolnir would have protested such an act!" he said, grinning.

"Try again," Tony suggested. "This time think about, I don't know, moving it out of the floor so people don't trip or something."

Clint shot him an odd look, but shrugged and gamely fixed his expression as he moved to grasp the handle. His eyes flew open in surprise when the hammer actually lifted a few inches off the floor this time, only to yelp when it suddenly dropped to the floor again. Tony winced; that was going to leave a dent.

"It was working," he said instead, hoping he sounded encouraging.

"Yeah, until I started thinking about the freezer again," Clint grumbled, eying the hammer. "Does it just not like the cold?"

"I can't think of anyone here who does," Natasha said dryly. "Even those of us who are used to it."

"Yeah, well, it's Steve's turn now," Clint said, frowning and crossing his arms. Steve looked startled, but shrugged and moved to grasp the handle of the hammer.

It lifted without trouble.

"Of course," Clint groaned. "Figures that Captain fucking America is worthy of lifting the damned thing."

Tony said nothing, but privately he agreed with Clint. It _would_ figure that Captain Perfect, the man his father had praised more than his own son, would be found worthy of the power of a god. It was a bitter taste in the back of his throat, but he'd expected it and didn't let his reaction show on his face.

"So that just leaves Tony," Bruce said, glancing in Tony's direction. Tony stiffened as all eyes turned to him, and forced a smirk.

"Be honest," he drawled. "Who here thinks I'd actually be able to lift it?" He probably should have expected the shifting of eyes and exchanged looks, and to a degree he was, but it still made something in his chest twist sharply behind the reactor. _Yeah, that's what I thought,_ he mentally berated himself. Clapping his hands on his knees, he stood. "If that's it, then, I'm going back to bed."

He didn't turn around when Steve let out a startled exclamation and Thor asked what was wrong.

"Nothing," he heard Steve say, tone puzzled. "Just, for a moment there, it got really heavy."

 

**T** HE HAMMER WASN'T EVEN PHYSICALLY PRESENT WHEN, gathered around in the living room and eating pizza, the subject of lifting it came up again.

"For truth, I did not know that placing Mjolnir on his chest would pin Loki in place, but I was grateful for the respite!" Thor was saying, waving one hand in illustration as he told them of the battle upon the Bifrost that led to Loki falling into the Void in the first place.

"Might be worth testing in the future," Tony commented absently, only half paying attention. "Just not on any humans, though."

"Don't like the idea of being pinned down, Stark?" Steve asked, his tone somewhere between disapproving and caustic.

Tony froze.

So did everyone else.

"...Wow, Cap," Tony managed after a moment of stunned silence. "I knew you didn't like me, but I hadn't realized you want me dead."

Steve jerked back, eyes wide in shock. "What? I didn't-- I don't--!"

"Sure sounded like it, suggesting that," Clint said, frowning at Steve.

"But... Thor just said he pinned Loki with it and he wasn't..." Steve was clearly floundering, not understanding. Tony bit back the urge to rub his eyes.

"Okay, you _do_ remember that Loki is, what, a frost giant?" he said, glancing at Thor for confirmation and receiving a nod. "Namely, much stronger and more durable than a measly mortal human, so having a heavy metal war hammer put on _his_ chest probably wouldn't shatter his ribcage or anything."

"There's also the part where Tony's arc reactor could get damaged if the hammer were put on top of it," Bruce pointed out dryly.

"Or where it's imbedded four inches into his chest and would crush his heart if enough strain was put on his ribs to break it loose," Natasha added. She shot Tony an apologetic look, and Tony forced himself to breathe.

"Ignoring all that and the part where if the reactor's not in there then tiny pieces of shrapnel will rip my heart to ribbons," he drawled, "we've already established who all here is and isn't expected to be able to lift it." He raised an eyebrow at a very pale Steve. "If I can't lift it, I can't get it off before it _does_ crush my ribcage or compresses my lungs to the point where I can't yell for help or--"

"Stop!" Steve cried, looking stricken. Everyone else was looking a bit disturbed as well, even Thor.

"I see your point, Man of Iron," he said soberly. "I will endeavor to remember not to use Mjolnir thusly on anyone who has not previously demonstrated the ability to withstand such an action."

"Good thinking, big guy," Tony said, taking another bite of pizza. "So, you'd pinned Loki, but...?"

Thor picked the story back up, slowly at first, but with more enthusiasm when first Clint and then Bruce made encouraging sounds. Tony continued to eat his pizza and ignore the way Steve was staring at him. That was a conversation that was probably long overdue, but Tony most definitely wasn't ready to have it yet.

 

**G** ETTING ATTACKED BY DOOMBOTS, in the middle of Manhattan on his way back from a board meeting, was not what Tony considered a good time. He'd managed to evade the strike aimed at his car and sent Happy off to help get more civilians under cover. He had his standard issue comm unit, and he had his suit - well, the emergency case, anyway - but that would take precious seconds to activate and don that he just didn't have right then with the swarming robots shooting at him and everyone else in sight.

"Stark! Damn it, get under cover!" he heard someone - sounded like Cap - snap in his ear. He might have rolled his eyes, but he was too busy knocking one of the doombots onto its back with a leg-sweep and sending it toppling into another one.

"Trying to!" he snapped back. "Cover's kind of in short supply!"

"Just stay out of the way!"

Under other circumstances, Tony might have snapped back at him. Under other circumstances, he wasn't busy fighting off a pair of doombots that had cornered a woman and child against a cafe table, while still holding the suitcase with his suit. Under other circumstances, Tony might not have been too busy to feel more than a flash of pain at the repeated confirmation that Captain America thought he was useless without his armor.

"Man of Iron!" Thor shouted. "To your left!"

Tony reacted instinctively, twisting around and holding up the suitcase to block the lazer blast from the doombot. On the plus side, the move worked to ricochet the blast back at the doombot that had fired. On the minus side, it made the suitcase spark angrily and Tony flung it at another doombot with a curse before grabbing the umbrella from the cafe table and folding it down.

"Get going, inside!" he yelled to the woman and her daughter, glad when they obeyed and scurried into the cafe. The umbrella met its end as a spear when Tony jabbed it into the exposed wires at the neck of a doombot that tried to follow them.

"There are more enemies approa--" Thor began, only to be cut off with a choked sound. Tony's blood ran cold as he saw Thor dropping from the sky, Mjolnir falling beside him. Unthinkingly, he reached out as if he could stop the man from plummeting by will alone--

Mjolnir abruptly changed directions, twisting and curving around Thor and pushing him into a roll. He hit the ground hard, the roll keeping him moving enough that it made his impact just that much less damaging, but Tony didn't have time to think about that as the handle of Mjolnir smacked into his palm and his fingers closed around it reflexively.

_NOBODY hurts my team!_ Tony thought fiercely, eyes narrowed at the oncoming doombots. Mjolnir seemed to vibrate pleasantly in his hand, and he held it up, willing the lightning to come forth and strike down their enemies. Dark clouds obscured the sun and thunder roared across the sky as the lightning answered, splitting overhead and flashing down to strike the doombots all around. A few managed to sidestep the lighting and keep advancing and Tony narrowed his eyes. _Go!_ he thought at Mjolnir, hurling it away in a wide arc. The hammer flew through the air, smashing the heads of each doombot it encountered in its arc before returning to Tony's hand.

"Damn," he heard Clint whistle through the earpiece, but he didn't have time to think about what that comment meant, because he was sending Mjolnir off again like a boomerang to take out another group of doombots that had pinned Black Widow down. He caught the hammer on the return flight and barely noticed Natasha tracking it back to him before he'd reached Thor's side. Crouching next to Thor, he willed the lightning to strike down the last four doombots he could see even as he checked the thunder god over.

"We're clear!" he heard Cap say. "Good work, Thor!"

"That wasn't Thor," Tony thought he heard Natasha say, but he wasn't paying attention anymore, taking Cap's all clear as the signal to set Mjolnir down again and turn Thor carefully onto his back to check for any other injuries. The head wound was closing before his eyes, and Thor groaned lowly as he was moved.

"Thank fuck for hard-headed Asgardians," Tony muttered, slumping in relief as Thor opened his eyes.

"Are we victorious?" the aforementioned hard-headed Asgardian asked, trying to sit up.

"Yeah, Thor, we won," Tony said quietly, helping him sit up. "Try not to get knocked out of the sky again, huh?"

 

**W** HY DIDN'T YOU SAY ANYTHING?" Steve asked for the fifth time, looking stunned and plaintive. He'd been asking that ever since Clint and Natasha had informed him in no uncertain terms that _Tony_ had been the one wielding Mjolnir at the end of the battle. They were sitting around the living room, Bruce cleaning a cut on Natasha's arm while Thor stood next to Tony and Clint sat behind him. Clint was actually massaging Tony's right shoulder, which had started aching when the battle adrenaline had faded and his body had decided to remind him that, worthy or not, he wasn't exactly practiced in throwing around a metal war hammer like he had.

"We've been over this," he said again, hissing slightly as Clint hit a particularly tight knot. "I'm the least expected person to be able to lift it, much less wield it. If I'd said something, you would have thought I was lying or bragging or whatever."

"But you _can_ lift it," Steve protested.

"Under stressful emergency conditions," Tony argued back. "That's hardly a basis for a generalized statement!"

"You haven't tried to lift it any other time?" Natasha asked, frowning at him thoughtfully. Tony pressed his lips together. He hadn't, right? He'd just imagined moving Mjolnir out of the middle of the floor two months ago, hadn't he?

"The eve after our battle with Loki," Thor rumbled thoughtfully, "though I was quite distracted by being reunited with my lady Jane, I can recall having left Mjolnir where I stood when I swept my lady into my arms."

"Except I found it against the wall the next morning," Clint said, sounding just as thoughtful. Tony fought the urge to squirm under his hands.

"And you were the first one up, weren't you?" Bruce said, frowning up at the ceiling, apparently trying to remember. "Except... Tony, weren't you still awake after everyone went to bed?"

"Coding," Tony said automatically, not looking at anyone. "Had to adjust the security program parameters to account for all of you."

"Didn't you tell me to think about moving the hammer so people wouldn't trip when we were all trying to lift it?" Clint asked quietly, and Tony fought a shiver at the puff of air next to his ear.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Steve asked again, and he sounded like he was _whining_. Tony made himself take a deep breath and count backwards from three thousand in Gaelic before he answered.

"Mjolnir can only be wielded by someone who's _worthy_ ," Tony said patiently, opening his eyes and staring at the carpet. "I thought I'd hallucinated it when I heard that bit, and that I clearly needed to get some sleep."

"Oh," Steve said, sounding embarrassed. "You were... sleeping? I thought--"

"I know what you thought," Tony interrupted, really not wanting to go there right now. Clint picked that moment to work loose the knotted tissue that was pressing against his shoulder blade, and Tony had to fight to stay upright and not moan in pleasure at the sudden release of tension. "Thanks," he breathed once he could speak without sounding like he was part of a bad porno.

"Welcome," Clint said cheerfully, though the lingering touch to Tony's shoulder had hints of something else in it. "Though speaking of sleep, I bet we could all use some right about now."

"I'll say," Bruce muttered, then flushed when he realized he'd said that out loud. Natasha glanced sideways at him in amusement.

"Thank you for your assistance, Bruce," she said warmly, touching his knee before standing. Tony took that as his own cue, standing up and clapping Thor on the shoulder before turning to Clint.

"Your back doing okay?" he asked, managing a decent 'casually concerned' tone. From the way Clint narrowed his eyes, Tony would bet the other man could see through him anyway.

"Better than last time," Clint said. "Still tightens up when I have to shoot a lot. Feel like returning the favor?"

"Hey, I'm a big fan of fair play," Tony said, keeping the mischief out of his tone through sheer will. "Come on, I'll give you a rubdown before the report-writing."

"How can I say no to an offer like that?" Clint grinned, and let Tony pull him up. They left the living room together, and Tony didn't even care that he could feel Steve watching them go.

 

**W** OULD SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME," Fury said patiently from the video monitor set up in the Tower's briefing-cum-conference room, "Why I have multiple reports of _Tony Stark_ using Thor's hammer - the hammer we had to circulate a memo about among SHIELD staff so they'd stop trying to lift it - _that_ hammer to take out forty motherfuckin' doombots?!"

"Forty-seven," Clint drawled from his spot at the table, feet kicked up. "I counted."

"The first six shouldn't count," Tony argued. "That was without Mjolnir."

"Would you people be serious for one goddamn minute!" Fury growled.

"They are being serious, Director Fury," Steve said in his most 'Captain America' tone. "Without aid of his armor, Tony Stark disabled six doombots while protecting civilians, then wielded Mjolnir to destroy forty-one more after Thor took a hit and was rendered unconscious."

"Mjolnir likes me," Tony said, shrugging. "No idea why."

"You are surprisingly likeable," Natasha said dryly. On screen, Fury threw up his hands.

"Just don't let it go to your head, Stark," he said with a growl and cut the connection. Everyone stared at the screen for a long moment.

"...Told you that you should've written the reports as if Cap picked up Mjolnir," Tony said after a moment. "He'd have believed that."

Nobody could quite figure out what to say to that.

 

**I** T WAS THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, and Tony was more than ready to get some sleep. He'd made JARVIS remind him of the collection of coffee mugs that needed washing before he left the lab, so now he was carrying them all to the kitchen before hunting down Clint and his bed, possibly in that order.

That was, of course, when he tripped over Mjolnir in the dark.

"For fuck's sake, _again_?" Tony groaned, staring down at the hammer as he caught one of the mugs before it could escape his hold. Sighing, he carried the mugs into the kitchen and dropped them into the sink, then picked up Mjolnir and carried the hammer down the hall to Thor's room, knocking on the wood gingerly with the hammer itself.

The door opened to reveal a sleepy-looking Jane. Tony held out Mjolnir. Jane blinked at it, then at Tony, then turned and walked back into Thor's room. A moment later, Thor came out, looking sheepish.

"My apologies, friend Anthony," he rumbled in what Tony guessed was meant to be a whisper.

"Just try to drop it next to a wall or something in the future," Tony said, shaking his head. "Have a good night."

"I wish you a pleasant night as well," Thor said, shutting the door when Tony turned away. He intended his night to be very pleasant, and at least this time he knew he wasn't hallucinating.

First things first, though... those mugs weren't going to wash themselves.

**-End-**

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[PODFIC] More Worthy Than Believed](https://archiveofourown.org/works/811931) by [kerravon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kerravon/pseuds/kerravon)




End file.
